Personal Case Design questions

[Karamazovmm]

Hello there! This should be my first post and thread!

I have always wanted a case that would be small and still carry a lot of punch, so that I could game and code away while not being hindered by the large space requirement!

Anyway, what I'm asking here today is what we can do to optimize the layout of the case, you guys have much more experience than I and it doesn't hurt to get some much more thoughtful input

My design goal was to use what I had at hand, so that means:

CPU: i5 4460
GPU: PNY GTX 970
MOBO: gigabyte h97m-ds3p MATX
PSU: ATX Cougar RX 600w ( I will probably change this to a SFX SX 500 LG in the future, so I can make another smaller case when I change the other main components)

The design considerations are basically to have at least 2x 3.5" HDD, 1x or 2x 2.5" SSD, and be as small as possible


here are some screenshots from the layout that I have come so far:

The measurements so far for the case are 265mm x 265mm x 290mm, almost cube like

I intended a more rectangle like design, aka FT03, to which I saw that it would be really tall with at least 360mm of height, given that the design demanded that I would use a feet of 20mm and the back would have to have a space of at least 60mm for the cables to be accommodated accordingly

one thing that I thought about was to move the PSU on top of the CPU cooler and let it act as an exhaust and thus diminishing the space below, to which I would change the 4 intake fans to 92mm

Your thoughts are very much appreciated

EDIT:

I just made another sketchup and I can acomodate 2x 120mm fans in the previous mentioned other design

here are some pics

 

[iFreilicht]

Welcome to the forum! Great to have you here!

So the first layout is very similar to the Corsair Carbide Air 240, and while it allows the use for very tall CPU coolers and a nice window with a straight look to the hardware, it is not very efficient.

The second one is much closer to "as small as possible, but there's room to optimise still. First off, while it's a nice idea for a clean build, putting the hard drives below the mainboard is pretty much wasted space. You could fit them in front of the PSU just as easily which allows you to either shrink the case or get more space for a wider GPU if you want.
If you want space back there for cable management, mounting the 2.5" drives in that place is still reasonable, but the 3.5" drives should move regardless.

You could also put the PSU lower and go for AIO cooling for the CPU. It would require you to move the front fans up a little, but other than that it seems like a sensible choice that might reduce noise and will allow the PSU to intake air from the inside of the case, acting as an exhaust fan and allowing a closed top of the case.
An added benefit of having only the two front fans as intakes is that you can use filters more easily.

As you're only using a single GPU with a blower fan (I guess mATX for the RAM?), you can think about placing one of the 3.5" drives in the position of the bottom card near the back, but as there's enough space in front of the PSU, I don't really see the benefit of doing so.

Finally you could potentially shorten the length of the case by going for a shorter GPU (The short Zotac 970 comes to mind) and moving the fans up and above the mainboard. That'll save you 25mm of length. Not all that much, but an optimisation nevertheless.

Have fun building!

 

[jeshikat]

Welcome to the forum!

If you want the case to follow spec, there needs to be at least 6.35mm between the bottom of the motherboard and the chassis. This is also the height of normal standoffs.

In the first layout it looks like the intention is for the case to be just bigger than the box formed by the components, but that wouldn't leave room for the PSU cables to get from the bottom "chamber" to the upper one.

 

[Karamazovmm]

Welcome to the forum! Great to have you here!

Welcome to the forum!

Thank you both!

So the first layout is very similar to the Corsair Carbide Air 240, and while it allows the use for very tall CPU coolers and a nice window with a straight look to the hardware, it is not very efficient.

I liked it because it has very tidy cable management and the spaces are quite good, it wasn't the most efficient layout by FAR

The second one is much closer to "as small as possible, but there's room to optimise still. First off, while it's a nice idea for a clean build, putting the hard drives below the mainboard is pretty much wasted space. You could fit them in front of the PSU just as easily which allows you to either shrink the case or get more space for a wider GPU if you want.
If you want space back there for cable management, mounting the 2.5" drives in that place is still reasonable, but the 3.5" drives should move regardless.

You could also put the PSU lower and go for AIO cooling for the CPU. It would require you to move the front fans up a little, but other than that it seems like a sensible choice that might reduce noise and will allow the PSU to intake air from the inside of the case, acting as an exhaust fan and allowing a closed top of the case.
An added benefit of having only the two front fans as intakes is that you can use filters more easily.

It would work, but not in conjunction with the below suggestion, there is a clearance issue with the height of the drives

And this is my fault, I posted the pictures of the 2nd design without posting the measurements of what would be the case: 265mm x 290mm x 210mm = 16L

With both of your ideas, I made this:

that would come as 280mm x 290mm x 170mm = 13L

And I would probaly expand the case 1cm more to the width from 280mm to 290mm to avoid any clearance issues with the last pci slot there, I intend to purchase an old sound card that can still accept RCA connectors, given that for 1 that is indeed a pci slot, and for 2 my home theater is wired quite precariously right now to the mobo (and its a great one despite the age)

Oh the AIO in there is the seidon 120v, its quite easy to purchase it here and readily available

As you're only using a single GPU with a blower fan (I guess mATX for the RAM?), you can think about placing one of the 3.5" drives in the position of the bottom card near the back, but as there's enough space in front of the PSU, I don't really see the benefit of doing so.

Finally you could potentially shorten the length of the case by going for a shorter GPU (The short Zotac 970 comes to mind) and moving the fans up and above the mainboard. That'll save you 25mm of length. Not all that much, but an optimisation nevertheless.

Have fun building!

I use a lot of RAM, currently I have 32gb, and that was another reason for matx, given that I bought this pc almost a year now. Aside that the cost, I live in Brazil and every pc component here is extremely expensive, a mitx mobo with the necessary ram would cost around U$3k, and only for those parts

Welcome to the forum!

If you want the case to follow spec, there needs to be at least 6.35mm between the bottom of the motherboard and the chassis. This is also the height of normal standoffs.

Oh those were done with that in mind, I have read the ATX specification and several other sources regarding clearance for the components and so forth, the issue is that the pictures here aren't much of a piece of art, sorry about that

In the first layout it looks like the intention is for the case to be just bigger than the box formed by the components, but that wouldn't leave room for the PSU cables to get from the bottom "chamber" to the upper one.

If I had followed the MATX specs that would indeed be impossible, however my mobo has 244mm x 193mm, which leaves indeed space there for the cable routing, its not the most efficient design nor layout, but the 1st layout is the one that can be mass produced easily if it comes to that, off course, with that I would need to add 25mm for the cable routing


On a side note:


If I would only make this case with the AIO in mind, this is what I would get

with dimensions of 265mm x 290mm x 190mm = 14L

I thank you both for all your input, this has been invaluable to me

 

[Sigmaeleven]

14L is compact! Especially coming from a mATX form factor, no less. An optional choice, but I would suggest to shorten the power supply cables as well sometime in the future.

Also, what do you see your future case to be made out of? Seems interesting.

Btw, welcome to the forums!

 

[Karamazovmm]

14L is compact! Especially coming from a mATX form factor, no less. An optional choice, but I would suggest to shorten the power supply cables as well sometime in the future.

Also, what do you see your future case to be made out of? Seems interesting.

Btw, welcome to the forums!

That is certainly one thing I would like to do in the future, one of the reasons I left some space in front of the psu is to deal with the cable mess

The materials may be a combination of aluminum and acrylic, I found a factory that is specialized in doing pc case work and they are charging me by the hour, the price of the 2mm aluminum is included and if any powder coating is going to happen as well

And thanks!

and sincerely iFreilicht, if there wasnt a need for the 2x 3.5" this case could be made even more compact, I could put 2x SSDs in there and be done with it, which would lead to a case of 265mm x 290mm x 160mm = 11L and it would be sli capable

 

[Sigmaeleven]

The materials may be a combination of aluminum and acrylic, I found a factory that is specialized in doing pc case work and they are charging me by the hour, the price of the 2mm aluminum is included and if any powder coating is going to happen as well

Count your blessings! In my area metalwork is pretty much out of the options. Alright, good luck on your endeavour!

 

[Karamazovmm]

Count your blessings! In my area metalwork is pretty much out of the options. Alright, good luck on your endeavour!

that took me and a friend ( who is also doing a mitx case) the better part of a month to find. it was going to be acrylic like yours before we found that factory

sincerely though, I may just use aluminum for the structure and the rest would be acrylic

 

[Sigmaeleven]

that took me and a friend ( who is also doing a mitx case) the better part of a month to find. it was going to be acrylic like yours before we found that factory

sincerely though, I may just use aluminum for the structure and the rest would be acrylic

Whoa, thanks for checking mine out!

Acrylic just looks better, shame it loses on its strength though.

 

[iFreilicht]

I like the 13L layout now, that looks very compact and efficient. Bit of a bummer that you'll have to use the fourth slot for the sound card, the third one would be suited much better.

Now to design a case around it!

 

[artimaeus]

A fully tempered glass case would be interesting. It'd be stronger than acrylic.

 

[Sigmaeleven]

A fully tempered glass case would be interesting. It'd be stronger than acrylic.

Heavy! >.>

 

[artimaeus]

That's true. Caselabs has some metal casters though

 

[Karamazovmm]

the issue with the glass is the price

 

[artimaeus]

Depends how you feel about $350

 

[Karamazovmm]

I have finally made some ventures into the case.

There were several other design layouts, however I have settled with one Im comfortable with, due to the possibility of expansio, the lack of necessity to actually buy right now a AIO WC and the fact that in terms of fabrication this is actually going to be extremely simple and quite feasible

For the fabrication part Im going to use one sheet of 2mm aluminum that is going to be folded 2x, next is the mesh underside which is also going to be made from aluminum. The top Im in doubt regarding how Im going to do that, my girlfriend wants it to be wood, so that she can draw on it, which is totally my fault for showing the design of the tallboy case

One thing to note is that on the last pic you can see first is the FT03, one case I always wanted and on the other side is my current case the H25 versa from thermaltake, which is my current case

I didnt want to make this a very boring rectangle that I could put my monitor on top of it ( to which I couldnt anyway, its a 29" one and it weights a ton) and while at first I was interested in doing the case more cube like, the presence of the jonsbo v4 led me to almost quit doing this, and just purchasing that

While I was looking for the jonsbo UMX3 and the V4 to buy, another layout came to mind, one to make it less square like and more interesting.

Im still in doubt regarding the feet, I may make it like the FT03, or more mac pro like, or more UMX3 like, however given that Im thinking of it being 2cm tops, I would probably chose the former.

in terms of structure, I dont even need to put an internal support beam or other stuff, now that the psu is on the bottom, and that gives me a plus now that the psu is a self contained unit, it would draw air from below and expel on the back

I could make to make the case a lot slimmer, however for that I would lose the AIO WC capability

So far Im liking it. The dimensions turned out to be H 350mm X W 180mm X D 250mm = 15L

The case has support for 2x 3.5" and 3x 2.5", GPU up to 240mm, and if I want to make it compatible with larger units is just a matter of giving it a bit of depth

 

[Karamazovmm]

I'm posting a minor redesign of the case, the internal layout of the case has also been changed

This project was based on the concept of a small case, while still being fully functional and having the right aesthetics for the more design orientated crowd, there was a lack of commercially available cases for the mATX format in the market, they were usually cases overtly large, that only made sense if they were ATX

[/IMG]

Dimensions:

Model C: H 300mm x W 180mm x D 260mm = 14.04L

Model S: H 275mm x W 180mm x D 260mm = 12.87L

What it will support:

Storage
Model C: 2x 3.5" HDD, 6x 2.5" SSDs/HDDs
Model S: 6x 2.5" SSDs/HDDs

Cooling
1x AIO 120mm CPU cooler, CPU coolers of no more than 80mm of height

GPU
lengths up to 250mm

The materials are wood and aluminum, as to complement the texture of one another, the whole point is to be a pleasant experience to look at your case.

To give the case strength the idea is to use a single sheet of 2mm aluminum bent and cut twice, while being perforated to provide airflow to the case, this design also allows for every cubic meter to be filled with components that you want there.

The front panel is made by Silverstone for their fortress models, being equipped with 2x USB 3.0, 1x mic and 1x headphone connection, while the power button will be a 16mm vandal switch

The assembly is also extremely easy, due to the system tray, where you would basically mount every component before sliding into the case. The sole exception are the 3.5" drives that are mounted on the top cover

There are 2 models so far, one more Compact (Model C) geared towards new formats, and another for the sake of Storage (Model S)

Please leave your comment, any input is appreciated.

Also, I suck at CAD

 

[Phuncz]

I really like the perforated front, I'd recommend doing the same in the back so you'd basically have a straight airflow path with less need for more casefans.

 

[Josh | NFC]

Welcome! Great to have more friends here.